Poker is a card game in which players wager chips on the outcome of a hand. The game may be played with two or more people, but the ideal number of players is 6, 7, or 8. Each player must place his or her chips into the pot in turn, with the object being to make a winning poker hand. The winner of the pot receives all the bets placed by all the players in that deal.

The game is fast-paced and the betting continues around the table until one player has all the chips or everyone folds. In some games, players can “check” (pass on their turn to act) if they do not have a good poker hand, but the rest of the players must either call or raise the player’s bet.

Most poker variants use a standard pack of 52 cards, although some games add additional cards called jokers to create different types of hands. There are many variations of the game, but each uses the basic rules and principles of the game to determine the winning hand.

The popularity of poker rose in the early 21st century, mainly due to the advent of online poker and live poker tournament broadcasts. These events turned poker into a spectator sport, and the game became more accessible to a wider audience. As the popularity of poker grew, research was done to examine whether it was a game of skill or luck. Ingo Fiedler and Jan-Philipp Rock of the Institute for Law and Economics at the University of Hamburg analyzed the records of over 50,000 poker players. They found that the skill factor was dominant over chance in the average hand.